The 6'5" Minnesota native, who played Division I basketball at Montana State from 1981 to '84, did not originally set out to be a sportscaster or a talk show host but hoped to break into showbiz as a comedy performer and actor. After a stint as a play-by-play commentator for Georgia's Savannah Spirits, he headed West to the Los Angeles area where he enrolled in a host of improvisation classes. Within two years, he had landed the position as sportscaster at KCBA-TV in Salinas (near Carmel and Big Sur), where his quick quips won him notice and a fan following that included Robin Williams, who sent Kilborn and autographed poster after Kilborn cried "Jumanji!" while commenting on a clip of a basketball slam dunk at the same time Williams' film was opening.
From 1993-1996, the handsome blond had a national audience as one of the hosts/announcers/anchors of cable giant ESPN's popular flagship news series "SportsCenter," where his unexpected razor-sharp comedic commentary and mischievous, twinkly-eyed delivery showed promise beyond the realm of sports broadcasting (after several succssors attempted to emulate his schtick, Kilborn apologized for introducing the of using highlight reels as vehicles for wisecracks: "Just give me the scores!"). That promise was realized when he was tapped as the host of "The Daily Show," a talk show which premiered on Comedy Central in 1996, in which "Kilby" and a gang of pundits sent up and satirized the news of the day. Kilborn became known for his quick, wry wit, and for his ability to surprise, but not embarrass, his guests with his trademark segment wherein he asks "Five Questions."
In 1999 Kilborn graduated to network television--albeit in the wee hour from 12:35 to 1:35 a.m--when David Letterman and his Worldwide Pants poriduction shingle tapped Kilborn to take of the desk of the retiring Tom Synder on CBS's post-Letterman talkfest "The Late, Late Show." "Craiggers," as he oft refers to himself, re-invigorated the show and made it his own with a more youthful edge and an experimetal, devil-may-care band of humor reflecting the late night hour. The show garnered a loyal audience, though never one large enough to break rival "Late Night With Conan O'Brien's" strong following on NBC in the same timeslot. Shortly after celebrating his fifth anniversary with the show, Kilborn opted not to renew his contract in 2004, claiming he felt he had done all he could for the show (there were also behind-the-scenes rumors of a desired pay increase that CBS balked at) and planning to write and produce television projects.
An acting career rarely seemed to loom on Kilborn's horizon, he did make his debut as a thespian in the bit part of a policeman in "Open Window", a 1991 Showtime TV-movie. Over a decade later, by then a well-established celebrity, he cameoed in college-minded comedy "Old School" (2003).